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At least 433 records · Page 24
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2014

Two-dimensional numerical simulations of supercritical accretion flows revisited

We study the dynamics of super-Eddington accretion flows by performing two-dimensional radiation-hydrodynamic simulations. Compared with previous works, in this paper we include the T {sub θφ} component of the viscous stress and consider various values of the viscous parameter α. We find that when T {sub θφ} is included, the rotational speed of the high-latitude flow decreases, while the density increases and decreases at the high and low latitudes, respectively. We calculate the radial profiles of inflow and outflow rates. We find that the inflow rate decreases inward, following a power law form of M-dot {sub in}∝r{sup s}. The value of s depends on the magnitude of α and is within the range of ∼0.4-1.0. Correspondingly, the radial profile of density becomes flatter compared with the case of a constant M-dot (r). We find that the density profile can be described by ρ(r)∝r {sup –p} and the value of p is almost same for a wide range of α ranging from α = 0.1 to 0.005. The inward decrease of inflow accretion rate is very similar to hot accretion flows, which is attributed to the mass loss in outflows. To study the origin of outflow, we analyze the convective stability of the slim disk. We find that depending on the value of α, the flow is marginally stable (when α is small) or unstable (when α is large). This is different from the case of hydrodynamical hot accretion flow, where radiation is dynamically unimportant and the flow is always convectively unstable. We speculate that the reason for the difference is because radiation can stabilize convection. The origin of outflow is thus likely because of the joint function of convection and radiation, but further investigation is required.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Megaparsec relativistic jets launched from an accreting supermassive black hole in an extreme spiral galaxy

The radio galaxy phenomenon is directly connected to mass-accreting, spinning supermassive black holes found in the active galactic nuclei. It is still unclear how the collimated jets of relativistic plasma on hundreds to thousands of kiloparsec scales form and why they are nearly always launched from the nuclei of bulge-dominated elliptical galaxies and not flat spirals. Here we present the discovery of the giant radio source J2345–0449 (z = 0.0755), a clear and extremely rare counterexample where relativistic jets are ejected from a luminous and massive spiral galaxy on a scale of ∼1.6 Mpc, the largest known so far. Extreme physical properties observed for this bulgeless spiral host, such as its high optical and infrared luminosity, large dynamical mass, rapid disk rotation, and episodic jet activity, are possibly the results of its unusual formation history, which has also assembled, via gas accretion from a disk, its central black hole of mass >2 × 10{sup 8} M {sub ☉}. The very high mid-IR luminosity of the galaxy suggests that it is actively forming stars and still building a massive disk. We argue that the launch of these powerful jets is facilitated by an advection-dominated, magnetized accretion flow at a low Eddington rate onto this unusually massive (for a bulgeless disk galaxy) and possibly fast spinning central black hole. Therefore, J2345–0449 is an extremely rare, unusual galactic system whose properties challenge the standard paradigms for black hole growth and the formation of relativistic jets in disk galaxies. Thus, it provides fundamental insight into accretion disk-relativistic jet coupling processes.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Fermi bubbles inflated by winds launched from the hot accretion flow in Sgr A*

A pair of giant gamma-ray Bubbles has been revealed by Fermi-LAT. In this paper we investigate their formation mechanism. Observations have indicated that the activity of the supermassive black hole located at the Galactic center, Sgr A*, was much stronger than at the present time. Specifically, one possibility is that while Sgr A* was also in the hot accretion regime, the accretion rate should be 10{sup 3}-10{sup 4} times higher during the past ∼10{sup 7} yr. On the other hand, recent magnetohydrodynamic numerical simulations of hot accretion flows have unambiguously shown the existence and obtained the properties of strong winds. Based on this knowledge, by performing three-dimensional hydrodynamical simulations, we show in this paper that the Fermi Bubbles could be inflated by winds launched from the 'past' hot accretion flow in Sgr A*. In our model, the active phase of Sgr A* is required to last for about 10 million years and it was quenched no more than 0.2 million years ago. The central molecular zone (CMZ) is included and it collimates the wind orientation toward the Galactic poles. Viscosity suppresses the Rayleigh-Taylor and Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities and results in the smoothness of the Bubbles edge. The main observational features of the Bubbles can be well explained. Specifically, the ROSAT X-ray features are interpreted by the shocked interstellar medium and the interaction region between the wind and CMZ gas. The thermal pressure and temperature obtained in our model are consistent with recent Suzaku observations.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Effects of high-energy particles on accretion flows onto a supermassive black hole

We study the effects of high-energy particles (HEPs) on the accretion flows onto a supermassive black hole and luminosities of escaping particles such as protons, neutrons, gamma rays, and neutrinos. We formulate a one-dimensional model of the two-component accretion flow consisting of thermal particles and HEPs, supposing that some fraction of the released energy is converted to the acceleration of HEPs. The thermal component is governed by fluid dynamics while the HEPs obey the moment equations of the diffusion-convection equation. By solving the time evolution of these equations, we obtain advection-dominated flows as the steady state solutions. The effects of the HEPs on the flow structures turn out to be small even if the pressure of the HEPs dominates over the thermal pressure. For a model in which the escaping protons take away almost all the energy released, the HEPs have a large enough influence to make the flow have a Keplerian angular velocity at the inner region. We calculate the luminosities of the escaping particles for these steady solutions. The escaping particles can extract the energy from about 10{sup −4} M-dot c{sup 2} to 10{sup −2} M-dot c{sup 2}, where M-dot is the mass accretion rate. The luminosities of the escaping particles depend on parameters such as the injection Lorentz factors, the mass accretion rates, and the diffusion coefficients. We also discuss some implications on the relativistic jet production by the escaping particles.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Carbon synthesis in steady-state hydrogen and helium burning on accreting neutron stars

Superbursts from accreting neutron stars probe nuclear reactions at extreme densities (ρ ≈ 10{sup 9} g cm{sup –3}) and temperatures (T > 10{sup 9} K). These bursts (∼1000 times more energetic than type I X-ray bursts) are most likely triggered by unstable ignition of carbon in a sea of heavy nuclei made during the rapid proton capture process (rp-process) of regular type I X-ray bursts (where the accumulated hydrogen and helium are burned). An open question is the origin of sufficient amounts of carbon, which is largely destroyed during the rp-process in X-ray bursts. We explore carbon production in steady-state burning via the rp-process, which might occur together with unstable burning in systems showing superbursts. We find that for a wide range of accretion rates and accreted helium mass fractions large amounts of carbon are produced, even for systems that accrete solar composition. This makes stable hydrogen and helium burning a viable source of carbon to trigger superbursts. We also investigate the sensitivity of the results to nuclear reactions. We find that the {sup 14}O(α, p){sup 17}F reaction rate introduces by far the largest uncertainties in the {sup 12}C yield.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Accretion disk radiation dynamics and the cosmic battery

We investigate the dynamics of radiation in the surface layers of an optically thick astrophysical accretion disk around a Kerr black hole. The source of the radiation is the surface of the accretion disk itself, and not a central object as in previous studies of the Poynting-Robertson effect. We generate numerical sky maps from photon trajectories that originate on the surface of the disk as seen from the inner edge of the disk at the position of the innermost stable circular orbit. We investigate several accretion disk morphologies with a Shakura-Sunyaev surface temperature distribution. Finally, we calculate the electromotive source of the Cosmic Battery mechanism around the inner edge of the accretion disk and obtain characteristic timescales for the generation of astrophysical magnetic fields.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

MECHANISM OF OUTFLOWS IN ACCRETION SYSTEM: ADVECTIVE COOLING CANNOT BALANCE VISCOUS HEATING?

Based on the no-outflow assumption, we investigate steady-state, axisymmetric, optically thin accretion flows in spherical coordinates. By comparing the vertically integrated advective cooling rate with the viscous heating rate, we find that the former is generally less than 30% of the latter, which indicates that the advective cooling itself cannot balance the viscous heating. As a consequence, for radiatively inefficient flows with low accretion rates such as M-dot ≲10{sup −3} M-dot {sub Edd}, where M-dot {sub Edd} is the Eddington accretion rate, the viscous heating rate will be larger than the sum of the advective cooling rate and the radiative cooling one. Thus, no thermal equilibrium can be established under the no-outflow assumption. We therefore argue that in such cases outflows ought to occur and take away more than 70% of the thermal energy generated by viscous dissipation. Similarly, for optically thick flows with extremely large accretion rates such as M-dot ≳10 M-dot {sub Edd}, outflows should also occur owing to the limited advection and the low efficiency of radiative cooling. Our results may help to understand the mechanism of outflows found in observations and numerical simulations.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

UNDERSTANDING BLACK HOLE MASS ASSEMBLY VIA ACCRETION AND MERGERS AT LATE TIMES IN COSMOLOGICAL SIMULATIONS

Accretion is thought to primarily contribute to the mass accumulation history of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) throughout cosmic time. While this may be true at high redshifts, at lower redshifts and for the most massive black holes (BHs) mergers themselves might add significantly to the mass budget. We explore this in two disparate environments—a massive cluster and a void region. We evolve SMBHs from 4 > z > 0 using merger trees derived from hydrodynamical cosmological simulations of these two regions, scaled to the observed value of the stellar mass fraction to account for overcooling. Mass gains from gas accretion proportional to bulge growth and BH-BH mergers are tracked, as are BHs that remain ''orbiting'' due to insufficient dynamical friction in a merger remnant, as well as those that are ejected due to gravitational recoil. We find that gas accretion remains the dominant source of mass accumulation in almost all SMBHs; mergers contribute 2.5% ± 0.1% for all SMBHs in the cluster and 1.0% ± 0.1% in the void since z = 4. However, mergers are significant for massive SMBHs. The fraction of mass accumulated from mergers for central BHs generally increases for larger values of the host bulge mass: in the void, the fraction is 2% at M {sub *,} {sub bul} = 10{sup 10} M {sub ☉}, increasing to 4% at M {sub *,} {sub bul} ≳ 10{sup 11} M {sub ☉}, and in the cluster it is 4% at M {sub *,} {sub bul} = 10{sup 10} M {sub ☉} and 23% at 10{sup 12} M {sub ☉}. We also find that the total mass in orbiting SMBHs is negligible in the void, but significant in the cluster, in which a potentially detectable 40% of SMBHs and ≈8% of the total SMBH mass (where the total includes central, orbiting, and ejected SMBHs) is found orbiting at z = 0. The existence of orbiting and ejected SMBHs requires modification of the Soltan argument. We estimate this correction to the integrated accreted mass density of SMBHs to be in the range 6%-21%, with a mean value of 11% ± 3%. Quantifying the growth due to mergers at these late times, we calculate the total energy output and strain from gravitational waves emitted by merging SMBHs, and obtain a signal potentially detectable by pulsar timing arrays.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

ELECTRON HEATING BY THE ION CYCLOTRON INSTABILITY IN COLLISIONLESS ACCRETION FLOWS. I. COMPRESSION-DRIVEN INSTABILITIES AND THE ELECTRON HEATING MECHANISM

In systems accreting well below the Eddington rate, such as the central black hole in the Milky Way (Sgr A*), the plasma in the innermost regions of the disk is believed to be collisionless and have two temperatures, with the ions substantially hotter than the electrons. However, whether a collisionless faster-than-Coulomb energy transfer mechanism exists in two-temperature accretion flows is still an open question. We study the physics of electron heating during the growth of ion velocity-space instabilities by means of multidimensional, fully kinetic, particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations. A background large-scale compression—embedded in a novel form of the PIC equations—continuously amplifies the field. This constantly drives a pressure anisotropy P > P {sub ∥} because of the adiabatic invariance of the particle magnetic moments. We find that, for ion plasma beta values β{sub 0i} ∼ 5-30 appropriate for the midplane of low-luminosity accretion flows (here, β{sub 0i} is the ratio of ion thermal pressure to magnetic pressure), mirror modes dominate if the electron-to-proton temperature ratio is T {sub 0e}/T {sub 0i} ≳ 0.2, whereas for T {sub 0e}/T {sub 0i} ≲ 0.2 the ion cyclotron instability triggers the growth of strong Alfvén-like waves, which pitch-angle scatter the ions to maintain marginal stability. We develop an analytical model of electron heating during the growth of the ion cyclotron instability, which we validate with PIC simulations. We find that for cold electrons (β{sub 0e} ≲ 2 m{sub e} /m{sub i} , where β{sub 0e} is the ratio of electron thermal pressure to magnetic pressure), the electron energy gain is controlled by the magnitude of the E-cross-B velocity induced by the ion cyclotron waves. This term is independent of the initial electron temperature, so it provides a solid energy floor even for electrons starting with extremely low temperatures. On the other hand, the electron energy gain for β{sub 0e} ≳ 2 m{sub e} /m{sub i} —governed by the conservation of the particle magnetic moment in the growing fields of the instability—is proportional to the initial electron temperature, and it scales with the magnetic energy of ion cyclotron waves. Our results have implications for two-temperature accretion flows as well as for solar wind and intracluster plasmas.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

ELECTRON HEATING BY THE ION CYCLOTRON INSTABILITY IN COLLISIONLESS ACCRETION FLOWS. II. ELECTRON HEATING EFFICIENCY AS A FUNCTION OF FLOW CONDITIONS

In the innermost regions of low-luminosity accretion flows, including Sgr A* at the center of our Galaxy, the frequency of Coulomb collisions is so low that the plasma has two temperatures, with the ions substantially hotter than the electrons. This paradigm assumes that Coulomb collisions are the only channel for transferring the ion energy to the electrons. In this work, the second of a series, we assess the efficiency of electron heating by ion velocity-space instabilities in collisionless accretion flows. The instabilities are seeded by the pressure anisotropy induced by magnetic field amplification, coupled to the adiabatic invariance of the particle magnetic moments. Using two-dimensional particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations, we showed in Paper I that if the electron-to-ion temperature ratio is T {sub 0e}/T {sub 0i} ≲ 0.2, the ion cyclotron instability is the dominant mode for ion betas β{sub 0i} ∼ 5-30 (here, β{sub 0i} is the ratio of ion thermal pressure to magnetic pressure), as appropriate for the midplane of low-luminosity accretion flows. In this work, we employ analytical theory and one-dimensional PIC simulations (with the box aligned with the fastest-growing wave vector of the ion cyclotron mode) to fully characterize how the electron heating efficiency during the growth of the ion cyclotron instability depends on the electron-to-proton temperature ratio, the plasma beta, the Alfvén speed, the amplification rate of the mean field (in units of the ion Larmor frequency), and the proton-to-electron mass ratio. Our findings can be incorporated as a physically grounded subgrid model into global fluid simulations of low-luminosity accretion flows, thus helping to assess the validity of the two-temperature assumption.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

TIME-DEPENDENT, COMPOSITIONALLY DRIVEN CONVECTION IN THE OCEANS OF ACCRETING NEUTRON STARS

We discuss the effect of convection driven by chemical separation at the ocean-crust boundary of accreting neutron stars. We extend the steady-state results of Medin and Cumming to transient accretors, by considering the time-dependent cases of heating during accretion outbursts and cooling during quiescence. During accretion outbursts, inward heat transport has only a small effect on the temperature profile in the outer layers until the ocean is strongly enriched in light elements, a process that takes hundreds of years to complete. During quiescence, however, inward heat transport rapidly cools the outer layers of the ocean while keeping the inner layers hot. We find that this leads to a sharp drop in surface emission at around a week followed by a gradual recovery as cooling becomes dominated by the crust. Such a dip should be observable in the light curves of these neutron star transients, if enough data is taken at a few days to a month after the end of accretion. If such a dip is definitively observed, it will provide strong constraints on the chemical composition of the ocean and outer crust.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Evolution of a binary black hole with a retrograde circumbinary accretion disk

We consider the evolution of a supermassive black hole binary (SMBHB) surrounded by a retrograde accretion disk. Assuming the disk is exactly in the binary plane and transfers energy and angular momentum to the binary via direct gas accretion, we calculate the time evolution of the binaryʼs semimajor axis a and eccentricity e. Because the gas is predominantly transferred when the binary is at apocenter, we find the eccentricity grows rapidly while maintaining constant a(1+e). After accreting only a fraction of the secondaryʼs mass, the eccentricity grows to nearly unity; from then on, gravitational wave (GW) emission dominates the evolution, preserving constant a(1−e). The high-eccentricity waveforms redistribute the peak GW power from the nHz to μHz bands, substantially affecting the signal that might be detected with pulsar timing arrays. We also estimate the torque coupling binaries of arbitrary eccentricity with obliquely aligned circumbinary disks. If the outer edge of the disk is not an extremely large multiple of the binary separation, retrograde accretion can drive the binary into the GW-dominated state before these torques align the binary with the angular momentum of the mass supply.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Accretion-powered pulsations in an apparently quiescent neutron star binary

Accreting millisecond X-ray pulsars (AMXPs) are an important subset of low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) in which coherent X-ray pulsations can be observed during occasional, bright outbursts (X-ray luminosity L{sub X}∼10{sup 36} erg s{sup −1}). These pulsations show that matter is being channeled onto the neutron star’s magnetic poles. However, such sources spend most of their time in a low-luminosity, quiescent state (L{sub X}≲10{sup 34} erg s{sup −1}), where the nature of the accretion flow onto the neutron star (if any) is not well understood. Here we report that the millisecond pulsar/LMXB transition object PSR J1023+0038 intermittently shows coherent X-ray pulsations at luminosities nearly 100 times fainter than observed in any other AMXP. We conclude that in spite of its low luminosity, PSR J1023+0038 experiences episodes of channeled accretion, a discovery that challenges existing models for accretion onto magnetized neutron stars.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

THE ACCRETION WIND MODEL OF FERMI BUBBLES. II. RADIATION

In a previous work, we have shown that the formation of Fermi bubbles can be due to the interaction between winds launched from the hot accretion flow in Sgr A* and the interstellar medium (ISM). In that work, we focus only on the morphology. In this paper we continue our study by calculating the gamma-ray radiation. Some cosmic-ray protons (CRp) and electrons (CRe) must be contained in the winds, which are likely formed by physical processes such as magnetic reconnection. We have performed MHD simulations to study the spatial distribution of CRp, considering the advection and diffusion of CRp in the presence of magnetic field. We find that a permeated zone is formed just outside of the contact discontinuity between winds and the ISM, where the collisions between CRp and thermal nuclei mainly occur. The decay of neutral pions generated in the collisions, combined with the inverse Compton scattering of background soft photons by the secondary leptons generated in the collisions and primary CRe, can well explain the observed gamma-ray spectral energy distribution. Other features such as the uniform surface brightness along the latitude and the boundary width of the bubbles are also explained. The advantage of this “accretion wind” model is that the adopted wind properties come from the detailed small-scale MHD numerical simulation of accretion flows and the value of mass accretion rate has independent observational evidences. The success of the model suggests that we may seriously consider the possibility that cavities and bubbles observed in other contexts such as galaxy clusters may be formed by winds rather than jets.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Viscous instability triggered by layered accretion in protoplanetary disks

Layered accretion is one of the inevitable ingredients in protoplanetary disks when disk turbulence is excited by magnetorotational instabilities (MRIs). In the accretion, disk surfaces where MRIs fully operate have a high value of disk accretion rate ( M-dot ), while the disk midplane where MRIs are generally quenched ends up with a low value of M-dot . Significant progress on understanding MRIs has recently been made by a number of dedicated MHD simulations, which requires improvement of the classical treatment of α in 1D disk models. To this end, we obtain a new expression of α by utilizing an empirical formula that is derived from recent MHD simulations of stratified disks with ohmic diffusion. It is interesting that this new formulation can be regarded as a general extension of the classical α. Armed with the new α, we perform a linear stability analysis of protoplanetary disks that undergo layered accretion, and we find that a viscous instability can occur around the outer edge of dead zones. Disks become stable in using the classical α. We identify that the difference arises from Σ-dependence of M-dot ; whereas Σ is uniquely determined for a given value of M-dot in the classical approach, the new approach leads to M-dot that is a multivalued function of Σ. We confirm our finding both by exploring a parameter space and by performing the 1D, viscous evolution of disks. We finally discuss other nonideal MHD effects that are not included in our analysis but may affect our results.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2012

ANTI-CORRELATED TIME LAGS IN THE Z SOURCE GX 5-1: POSSIBLE EVIDENCE FOR A TRUNCATED ACCRETION DISK

We investigate the nature of the inner accretion disk in the neutron star source GX 5-1 by making a detailed study of time lags between X-rays of different energies. Using the cross-correlation analysis, we found anti-correlated hard and soft time lags of the order of a few tens to a few hundred seconds and the corresponding intensity states were mostly the horizontal branch (HB) and upper normal branch. The model independent and dependent spectral analysis showed that during these time lags the structure of the accretion disk significantly varied. Both eastern and western approaches were used to unfold the X-ray continuum and systematic changes were observed in soft and hard spectral components. These changes along with a systematic shift in the frequency of quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) made it substantially evident that the geometry of the accretion disk is truncated. Simultaneous energy spectral and power density spectral study shows that the production of the horizontal branch oscillations (HBOs) is closely related to the Comptonizing region rather than the disk component in the accretion disk. We found that as the HBO frequency decreases from the hard apex to upper HB, the disk temperature increases along with an increase in the coronal temperature, which is in sharp contrast with the changes found in black hole binaries where the decrease in the QPO frequency is accompanied by a decrease in the disk temperature and a simultaneous increase in the coronal temperature. We discuss the results in the context of re-condensation of coronal material in the inner region of the disk.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2011

COUPLED HBO AND NBO VARIATIONS IN THE Z SOURCE GX 5-1: INNER ACCRETION DISK AS THE LOCATION OF QPOs

The simultaneous and coupled evolution of horizontal branch oscillation (HBO) and normal branch oscillation (NBO) in Z-type sources suggests that the production of HBO is connected to NBO and is caused by changes in the physical/radiative properties of the inner accretion disk, although there is a lack of substantial spectral evidence to support this. In this Letter, we present the results of an analysis of an RXTE observation of the Z source GX 5-1, where the 6 Hz NBO is simultaneously detected along with an HBO at 51 Hz. The variations in the intensity and the associated power density spectrum indicate that the HBO and NBO are strongly coupled, originating from the same location in the inner accretion disk. The absence of HBO and NBO in the lower energy bands, an increase in the rms amplitude with energy, and a smooth transition among them suggest that they are produced in the hot inner regions of the accretion disk. Based on a spectral analysis, we found a signature of changing or physically modified inner disk front during the coupled HBO and NBO evolution. We explore the various models to explain the observed phenomenon and propose that the NBO is affiliated to the oscillations in the thick/puffed-up inner region of the accretion disk.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2012

CONSTRAINTS ON COMPTON-THICK WINDS FROM BLACK HOLE ACCRETION DISKS: CAN WE SEE THE INNER DISK?

Strong evidence is emerging that winds can be driven from the central regions of accretion disks in both active galactic nuclei and Galactic black hole binaries. Direct evidence for highly ionized, Compton-thin inner-disk winds comes from observations of blueshifted (v {approx} 0.05-0.1c) iron-K X-ray absorption lines. However, it has been suggested that the inner regions of black hole accretion disks can also drive Compton-thick winds-such winds would enshroud the inner disk, preventing us from seeing direct signatures of the accretion disk (i.e., the photospheric thermal emission, or the Doppler/gravitationally broadened iron K{alpha} line). Here, we show that, provided the source is sub-Eddington, the well-established wind-driving mechanisms fail to launch a Compton-thick wind from the inner disk. For the accelerated region of the wind to be Compton-thick, the momentum carried in the wind must exceed the available photon momentum by a factor of at least 2/{lambda}, where {lambda} is the Eddington ratio of the source, ruling out radiative acceleration unless the source is very close to the Eddington limit. Compton-thick winds also carry large mass fluxes, and a consideration of the connections between the wind and the disk shows this to be incompatible with magneto-centrifugal driving. Finally, thermal driving of the wind is ruled out on the basis of the large Compton radii that typify black hole systems. In the absence of some new acceleration mechanisms, we conclude that the inner regions of sub-Eddington accretion disks around black holes are indeed naked.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗